Foam generating floor cleansing device

ABSTRACT

A floor covering cleansing device manually or electrically operable of the detergent foam generating type and specifically a corrugated roller in engagement with a brush for generating the foam. The corrugated roller and other brushes are further utilized to work the foam into the floor covering.

United States Patent Ballantyne [4 June 20, 1972 FOAM GENERATING FLOOR VReferenws i d CLEANSING DEVICE UNITED STATES PATENTS [721 Invent WBalllmyne, Columbus, 3,328,829 7/1967 Nighswander ..40I/21 ohm 3,121,8962/1964 Allen et al 15/50 R 73 A B81] Ma u! I 1 sslgnee 32: Ohio mumsCmpmy FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS s p Switzerland C APPI- NO-I71,298 Primary Examiner-Leon G. Machlin Attorney-Anthony D. Cennamo s2u.s.c1 ..Is/4, 401/22 51 Int. (:1. ..A47l13/12 ABSTRACT [58] FieldofSearch ..15/s0, 4o, 4, 49, 29; 401/282,

401/21-23; 239/142, 2l4, 329, 331, 332, 380, 343; 259/D1G. 36; l59/DIG,4; 252/359 E; 222/173;

A floor covering cleansing device manually or electrically operable ofthe detergent foam generating type and specifically a corrugated rollerin engagement with a brush for 26l/DIG 26 generating the foam. Thecorrugated roller and other brushes are further utilized to work thefoam into the floor covering.

7 V Claims 6 Drawing V 2O 30 3O 22 I5 220 V INVENTOR F l G. I EARNEST RBALLANTYNE PKTENTEDJum m2 $670,352

sum ear 2 A 5 G F INVENTOR. EARNEST R. BALLANTYNE FOAM GENERATING FLOORCLEANSING DEVICE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 7 There are many floorcovering cleansing devices available on the market, both theprofessional type and the home do-ityourself variety. Basically, theprinciple of operation of these cleansing devices is to dispense adetergent, liquid or dry, on the floor and to activate the detergentthrough brush action. More particularly, a typical prior art cleaningdevice will comprise a tank for storing liquid detergent; the tankhaving a series of ports, with a hand-operated shutter mechanism, fordispensing the liquid either on a brush, sponge or directly to thefloor. The liquid detergent is then converted into suds by theback-and-forth or circular motion of the brushes in contact with thecovering.

CROSS REFERENCES My prior inventions, US. Pat. Nos. 3,108,312;3,114,922; 3,114,927; 3,120,676, 3,178,756; and 3,173,165, are verygenerally based on the principle of activating the detergentthat is,converting it to suds or foam prior to application to the floorcovering. In this manner, the floor covering remains dry, at leastcomparatively speaking, removing the danger of further shrinkage andrapid subsequent soiling. Also, a uniform application of cleanser isapplied with no skill or extra effort. Further since only the detergentthat is used is dispensed, a considerable savings in relativelyexpensive detergent is made. I have found that it is possible to cleanas high as twice as much floor covering of the carpeting type, with myinvention, than was previously possible.

Other prior art devices are known for generating detergent foam forapplication to the floor covering. The most widely used of these priorart devices utilizes a hard roller and a sponge type of roller. Thesponge type of roller being the means for inserting the air underpressure to the liquiddetergent.

Although my prior inventions are very much operable and practical inuse, they are somewhat complex for reaching the mass market.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a foam generatingfloor covering cleansing device. The foam generator includes acorrugated roller with a pair of contour shaped brushes in contact withthe corrugations. Between the pair of brushes is disposed means-fordispensing liquid detergent uniformly across the length of thebrushesthe brushes and corrugated roller being of a length to spanthe-width of the cleansing device. Additionally, other brushesaredisposed fore and aft of the corrugated roller fortogether with thecorrugated roller-working'the detergent foam into the floor covering.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is a general object of myinvention to provide a new and improved floor cleansing device of thefoam generating type.

It is a further object of my invention to provide a new foam generatorthat is rugged, efficient, and extremely simple in operation.

Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparentwhen taken in conjunction with the drawings, in which:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side view cutawayschematic illustration of a preferred embodiment of my invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged pictorial view of the roller-brush combination;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged pictorial view of the detergent dispensing means;and

FIG. 4 is a showing of the adaptation of my invention to electricaloperation.

FIGS. 5A and 5B show alternative contours of the rollers.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The general concepts of theinvention includes a liquid detergent storage tank 16, dispensing means18, a corrugated roller 26, having brushes 24 and 25 fore and aft, andcontoured brushes 22 and 22A in contact with the corrugated rollerpositioned between the roller 26 and the dispensing means 18.

More specifically, it is known that the conventional scrub brush soakedwith liquid detergent, when worked back and forth over a surface, willgenerate foam. The amount of foam and the degree of rapidity in which itis generated is dependent primarily upon the roughness of the surfacetogether with the work effort. This basic principle is utilized in thepresent invention; the roughness of the surface being the corrugationson the roller 26 and the work effort being the rotation of the roller26. In other words, the foam is generated by keeping the brushesstationary and moving a wrought surface over the brushes.

With particular reference to the drawings, the floor cleansing devicecomprises a housing 28 having an upper section 16 adapted to storeliquid detergent. The lower section 17 of the housing 28 is the foamgenerator. The brushes 24 and 25 and the roller. 26 extend beyond thelower section 17 to comprise the scrubbing section.

The foam generator section 17 has fixedly positioned a pair of brushes22 and 22a. The two brushes are elongated and traverse the entiresection 17. The brushes 22 and 22a are maintained in position by thebrackets 13 and 15 integrally formed with the bulkheads 9 and 11. Thebulkheads 9 and 11 are in turn welded or fused to the housing 28 andform the bottom of the liquid detergent tank 16. The bristle retainingportion of the brushes 22 and 22a are secured in position to thebrackets 13 and 15.

In the lower bulkhead 19 a pair of angle brackets 21 and 23 arecentrally positioned and secured thereto. The tips of the angle brackets21 and 23 carrying the brushes 24 and 25. The angle brackets 21 and 23are spaced sufficiently apart to permit the free rotation therebetweenthe roller 26.

The brushes 22 and 22a are contoured in a manner that together they forma semicircular brush. The inside diameter of the semicircular brushbeing that of the outside of the roller 26. The brushes 22 and 22a andthe roller 26 are so positioned that the tips of the bristles on thebrushes touch the roller between the corrugations. In this way there isforceful contact between the corrugations on the roller 26 and asubstantial amount of the ends of the bristles on the brushes 22 and220.

With further reference to FIG. 1 and FIGS. 2 and 3, the angle brackets13 and 15 supporting the brushes 22 and 220 forms a trough 20 centrallypositioned and adapted to dispense liquid detergent to the roller-brushcombination. The lowermost (bottom) portion of the trough having aseries of holes or ports to permit the dropping of the liquid detergent.

In order to control the flow of liquid detergent to the trough 20 andhence to the roller-brushes assembly a stopper or valve 18 is positionedin a port 31 connecting the tank 16 and the trough 20. To introduceliquid detergent to the trough, trigger 10 is activated causing wire 12affixed thereto to lift the stopper 18. Upon release of the trigger 10the spring 14 forces stopper 18 to return to its sealing position inport 31.

In operation with the dispensing of the liquid detergent on the roller26 and its relative movement with the brushes 22 and 22a, the liquiddetergent is converted to foam. With continued rotation of the roller 26the foam is carried to the workpiece-where together with the brushes 24and 25 the foam is worked into the workpiece. By manual movement of thecleansing device back and forth the roller 26 in contact with theworkpiece will rotate in both directions. The direction of movement isimmaterial in that the brushes 22 and 220 are disposed on either side ofthe center line of the roller 26. That is, in that the detergent isdispensed between the brushes 22 and 22a brush 22 will generate the foamwith rotation of the roller 16 with movement of the device in theforward direction and roller 22a will generate foam with rotation of theroller 16 with movement of the device in a rearward direction. It can beappreciated, however, that since a certain amount of detergent will beretained by the brushes 22 and 22a foam will be generated by bothbrushes with movement in either direction.

A commercial adaptation of the present invention is shown in FIG. 4. Inthis embodiment electrical rotation is imparted to the roller 46 and therotary brushes 48 and 44. Power is supplied by motor 42, shaft 43 andpulley belts 45 and 47. The principle of operation is similar but with agreater degree of work effort between the corrugated roller 46 and thebrushes 49 and 49a.

What is claimed is:

l. A floor cleansing device for applying detergent foam to a workpiececomprising: a housing, a tank for retention of the detergent, a rigidelongated roller having a corrugated surface and being rotatably carriedat its two extremeties by said housing, an elongated brush, meanspositioning said brush adjacent said corrugated roller sufficientlyclose for the tips of said brushes to be in contact with thecorrugations on said roller, and communication means opening said tankto said roller.

2. A floor cleansing device as set forth in claim 1 wherein said brushis disposed on either side of said detergent communication means.

3. A floor cleansing device as set forth in claim 1 wherein said brushis semicircular to conform to the contour of said roller.

4. A floor cleansing device as set forth in claim 1 wherein saidcommunication means comprises a series of openings between said tank andsaid roller and valve means for opening and closing said openings.

5. A floor cleansing device as set forth in claim 1 wherein said brushpositioning means is centrally positioned between said brush and saidtank, said positioning means being integrally formed with said tank,said positioning means fonning a liquid detergent trough ofsubstantially the same length as said roller, and wherein saidcommunication means between said tank and said roller is formed in thelowermost portion of said trough.

6. A floor cleansing device as set forth in claim 1 wherein said brushis elongated and substantially the same length as said roller.

7. A floor cleansing device as set forth in claim 1 wherein said rolleris rotably carried centrally in the lower-most region of said housing,and further including a pair of brushes fore and aft of said rollerextending along the axis of said roller.

8. A floor cleansing device as set forth in claim 1 including electricaldrive means and means connecting said roller to said electrical drivemeans for electrically rotating said roller.

1. A floor cleansing device for applying detergent foam to a workpiececomprising: a housing, a tank for retention of the detergent, a rigidelongated roller having a corrugated surface and being rotatably carriedat its two extremeties by said housing, an elongated brush, meanspositioning said brush adjacent said corrugated roller sufficientlyclose for the tips of said brushes to be in contact with thecorrugations on said roller, and communication means opening said tankto said roller.
 2. A floor cleansing device as set forth in claim 1wherein said brush is disposed on either side of said detergentcommunication means.
 3. A floor cleansing device as set forth in claim 1wherein said brush is semicircular to conform to the contour of saidroller.
 4. A floor cleansing device as set forth in claim 1 wherein saidcommunication means comprises a series of openings between said tank andsaid roller and valve means for opening and closing said openings.
 5. Afloor cleansing device as set forth in claim 1 wherein said brushpositioning means is centrally positioned between said brush and saidtank, said positioning means being integrally formed with said tank,said positioning means forming a liquid detergent trough ofsubstantially the same length as said roller, and wherein saidcommunication means between said tank and said roller is formed in thelowermost portion of said trough.
 6. A floor cleansing device as setforth in claim 1 wherein said brush is elongated and substantially thesame length as said roller.
 7. A floor cleansing device as set forth inclaim 1 wherein said roller is rotably carried centrally in thelower-most region of said housing, and further including a pair ofbrushes fore and aft of said roller extending along the axis of saidroller.
 8. A floor cleansing device as set forth in claim 1 includingelectrical drive means and means connecting said roller to saidelectrical drive means for electrically rotating said roller.